CN117917143A

CN117917143A - Dynamic positioning capability reporting in millimeter wave bands

Info

Publication number: CN117917143A
Application number: CN202280059886.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: V·拉加万; S·阿卡拉卡兰
Original assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Current assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Priority date: 2021-09-09
Filing date: 2022-08-05
Publication date: 2024-04-19
Also published as: WO2023039322A1; US20230070456A1; KR20240054988A; EP4399916A1; US11917653B2

Abstract

Techniques for wireless positioning are disclosed. In an aspect, a User Equipment (UE) may determine an angle-based estimation capability of the UE. The UE may report the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity. In an aspect, a network entity may receive information from a User Equipment (UE) indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE. The network entity may determine an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE. The network entity may send the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE.

Description

Dynamic positioning capability reporting in millimeter wave bands

Background of the disclosure

1. Field of the disclosure

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communications.

2. Description of related Art

Wireless communication systems have evolved over many generations including first generation analog radiotelephone services (1G), second generation (2G) digital radiotelephone services (including transitional 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, internet-capable wireless services, and fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). Many different types of wireless communication systems are currently in use, including cellular and Personal Communication Services (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), as well as digital cellular systems based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), global system for mobile communications (GSM), and the like.

The fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, known as New Radio (NR), achieves higher data transmission speeds, a greater number of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. According to the next generation mobile network alliance, the 5G standard is designed to provide higher data rates, more accurate positioning (e.g., based on reference signals (RS-P) for positioning, such as downlink, uplink, or sidelink Positioning Reference Signals (PRS)), and other technical enhancements than the previous standard. These enhancements, as well as the use of higher frequency bands, advances in PRS procedures and techniques, and high density deployment of 5G enable high accuracy positioning based on 5G.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary in connection with one or more aspects disclosed herein. Thus, the following summary should not be considered an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, nor should it be considered to identify key or critical elements of all contemplated aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Accordingly, the sole purpose of the following summary is to present some concepts related to one or more aspects related to the mechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form prior to the detailed description that is presented below.

In an aspect, a method of wireless positioning performed by a User Equipment (UE) includes: determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

In one aspect, a method of wireless location performed by a network entity includes: receiving, from a User Equipment (UE), information indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; determining an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE.

In an aspect, a User Equipment (UE) includes: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

In one aspect, a network entity comprises: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receiving, via the at least one transceiver, information from a User Equipment (UE) indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; determining an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE via the at least one transceiver.

In an aspect, a User Equipment (UE) includes: means for determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and means for reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

In one aspect, a network entity comprises: means for receiving, from a User Equipment (UE), information indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; means for determining an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and means for transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE.

In an aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a User Equipment (UE), cause the UE to: determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a network entity, cause the network entity to: receiving, from a User Equipment (UE), information indicating the UE and an angle-based estimated capability; determining an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE.

Other objects and advantages associated with the aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the drawings and the detailed description.

Brief description of the drawings

The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the description of various aspects of the disclosure and are provided solely for illustration and not limitation of the various aspects.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication system in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2A and 2B illustrate example wireless network structures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3A, 3B, and 3C are simplified block diagrams of several example aspects of components that may be employed in a User Equipment (UE), a base station, and a network entity, respectively, and configured to support communications as taught herein.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of various positioning methods supported in a New Radio (NR) in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of an example process performed by a UE in association with dynamic positioning capability reporting in the millimeter wave band, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 is a flow diagram of an example process associated with dynamic positioning capability reporting in the millimeter wave band performed by a network entity in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Aspects of the disclosure are provided in the following description and related drawings for various examples provided for purposes of illustration. Alternative aspects may be devised without departing from the scope of the disclosure. In addition, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the present disclosure.

The words "exemplary" and/or "example" are used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and/or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term "aspects of the disclosure" does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signals described below may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the following description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the particular application, on the desired design, on the corresponding technology, and so forth.

Furthermore, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will be recognized that various actions described herein can be performed by specific circuits (e.g., application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs)), by program instructions being executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, the sequence of actions described herein can be considered to be embodied entirely within any form of non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein a corresponding set of computer instructions that upon execution would cause or instruct an associated processor of a device to perform the functions described herein. Thus, the various aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which have been contemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect may be described herein as, for example, "logic configured to … …".

As used herein, unless otherwise indicated, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any particular Radio Access Technology (RAT). In general, a UE may be any wireless communication device used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network (e.g., a mobile phone, router, tablet computer, laptop computer, consumer asset location device, wearable device (e.g., smart watch, glasses, augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR) head-mounted device, etc.), vehicle (e.g., automobile, motorcycle, bicycle, etc.), internet of things (IoT) device, etc. The UE may be mobile or may be stationary (e.g., at certain times) and may communicate with a Radio Access Network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" may be interchangeably referred to as "access terminal" or "AT," "client device," "wireless device," "subscriber terminal," "subscriber station," "user terminal" or UT, "mobile device," "mobile terminal," "mobile station," or variations thereof. In general, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network, the UE may connect with external networks such as the internet as well as with other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms of connecting to the core network and/or the internet are possible for the UE, such as through a wired access network, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, etc.), etc.

A base station may operate in accordance with one of several rats to communicate with a UE depending on the network in which the base station is deployed, and may alternatively be referred to as an Access Point (AP), a network node, a node B, an evolved node B (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a New Radio (NR) node B (also referred to as a gNB or g B node), and so on. The base station may be primarily used to support wireless access for UEs, including supporting data, voice, and/or signaling connections for the supported UEs. In some systems, a base station may provide only edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems, the base station may provide additional control and/or network management functionality. The communication link through which a UE can send signals to a base station is called an Uplink (UL) channel (e.g., reverse traffic channel, reverse control channel, access channel, etc.). The communication link through which a base station can transmit signals to a UE is called a Downlink (DL) or forward link channel (e.g., paging channel, control channel, broadcast channel, forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term "Traffic Channel (TCH)" may refer to either an uplink/reverse or downlink/forward traffic channel.

The term "base station" may refer to a single physical Transmission Reception Point (TRP) or multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be co-located. For example, in the case where the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna of the base station corresponding to the cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. In the case where the term "base station" refers to a plurality of co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs may be an antenna array of the base station (e.g., as in a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system or where the base station employs beamforming). In the case where the term "base station" refers to a plurality of physical TRPs at non-co-location, the physical TRPs may be a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a Remote Radio Head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the physical TRP at non-co-location may be a serving base station receiving measurement reports from the UE and a neighboring base station whose reference Radio Frequency (RF) signal is being measured by the UE. Because as used herein, TRP is the point at which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, references to transmitting from or receiving at a base station should be understood to refer to a particular TRP of a base station.

In some implementations supporting UE positioning, the base station may not support wireless access for the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and/or signaling connections for the UE), but may instead transmit reference signals to the UE to be measured by the UE, and/or may receive and measure signals transmitted by the UE. Such base stations may be referred to as positioning towers (e.g., in the case of transmitting signals to a UE) and/or as position measurement units (e.g., in the case of receiving and measuring signals from a UE).

An "RF signal" comprises electromagnetic waves of a given frequency that transmit information through a space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of the RF signal through the multipath channel, the receiver may receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between the transmitter and the receiver may be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal. As used herein, where the term "signal" refers to a wireless signal or RF signal, as clear from the context, an RF signal may also be referred to as a "wireless signal" or simply "signal.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication system 100 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless communication system 100, which may also be referred to as a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN), may include various base stations 102 (labeled "BSs") and various UEs 104. Base station 102 may include a macrocell base station (high power cellular base station) and/or a small cell base station (low power cellular base station). In an aspect, the macrocell base station may include an eNB and/or a ng-eNB (where wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network), or a gNB (where wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network), or a combination of both, and the small cell base station may include a femtocell, a picocell, a microcell, and so on.

The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or a 5G core (5 GC)) through a backhaul link 122 and with one or more location servers 172 (e.g., a Location Management Function (LMF) or a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)) through the core network 170. The location server 172 may be part of the core network 170 or may be external to the core network 170. The location server 172 may be integrated with the base station 102. The UE 104 may communicate directly or indirectly with the location server 172. For example, the UE 104 may communicate with the location server 172 via the base station 102 currently serving the UE 104. The UE 104 may also communicate with the location server 172 via another path, such as via an application server (not shown), via another network, such as via a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Access Point (AP) (e.g., AP 150 described below), and so forth. For purposes of signaling, communication between the UE 104 and the location server 172 may be represented as an indirect connection (e.g., through the core network 170, etc.) or a direct connection (e.g., as shown via the direct connection 128), with intermediate nodes (if any) omitted from the signaling diagram for clarity.

Among other functions, the base station 102 may perform functions related to one or more of the following: transport user data, radio channel ciphering and ciphering, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS), subscriber and device tracking, RAN Information Management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of alert messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through EPC/5 GC) over a backhaul link 134, which may be wired or wireless.

The base station 102 may communicate wirelessly with the UE 104. Each of the base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic coverage area 110. In an aspect, one or more cells may be supported by base stations 102 in each geographic coverage area 110. A "cell" is a logical communication entity for communicating with a base station (e.g., on some frequency resource, referred to as a carrier frequency, component carrier, frequency band, etc.), and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical Cell Identifier (PCI), enhanced Cell Identifier (ECI), virtual Cell Identifier (VCI), cell Global Identifier (CGI), etc.) for distinguishing between cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine Type Communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or other protocol types) that may provide access to different types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a particular base station, the term "cell" may refer to either or both of a logical communication entity and the base station supporting it, depending on the context. Furthermore, because TRP is typically the physical transmission point of a cell, the terms "cell" and "TRP" may be used interchangeably. In some cases, the term "cell" may also refer to the geographic coverage area of a base station (e.g., a sector) as long as the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within some portion of the geographic coverage area 110.

Although the geographic coverage areas 110 of neighboring macrocell base stations 102 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover area), some of the geographic coverage areas 110 may be substantially overlapped by a larger geographic coverage area 110. For example, a small cell base station 102 '(labeled "SC" for "small cell") may have a geographic coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the geographic coverage areas 110 of one or more macrocell base stations 102. A network comprising both small cell base stations and macro cell base stations may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. The heterogeneous network may also include a home eNB (HeNB) that may provide services to a restricted group called a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG).

The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 may include uplink (also referred to as a reverse link) transmissions from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and/or downlink (downlink) (also referred to as a forward link) transmissions from the base station 102 to the UE 104. Communication link 120 may use MIMO antenna techniques including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and/or transmit diversity. Communication link 120 may be over one or more carrier frequencies. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to the downlink and uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to the downlink than to the uplink).

The wireless communication system 100 may also include a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Access Point (AP) 150 in unlicensed spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz) that communicates with a WLAN Station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154. When communicating in the unlicensed spectrum, WLAN STA 152 and/or WLAN AP 150 may perform a Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) or Listen Before Talk (LBT) procedure prior to communication in order to determine whether a channel is available.

The small cell base station 102' may operate in licensed and/or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in unlicensed spectrum, the small cell base station 102' may employ LTE or NR technology and use the same 5GHz unlicensed spectrum as used by the WLAN AP 150. The use of LTE/5G small cell base stations 102' in the unlicensed spectrum may improve access network coverage and/or increase access network capacity. NR in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U. LTE in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, licensed Assisted Access (LAA), or MulteFire.

The wireless communication system 100 may also include a millimeter wave (mmW) base station 180 that may operate at and/or near mmW frequencies to communicate with the UE 182. Extremely High Frequency (EHF) is a part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30GHz to 300GHz, with wavelengths between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. The radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. The near mmW can be extended down to a frequency of 3GHz with a wavelength of 100 mm. The ultra-high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3GHz and 30GHz, which is also known as a centimeter wave. Communications using mmW/near mmW radio frequency bands have high path loss and relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmit and/or receive) over the mmW communication link 184 to compensate for extremely high path loss and short range. Further, it will be appreciated that in alternative configurations, one or more base stations 102 may also transmit using mmW or near mmW and beamforming. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the foregoing illustrations are merely examples and should not be construed as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in a particular direction. Conventionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in all directions (omnidirectionally). With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that particular direction, providing faster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signals to the receiving device. To change the directionality of the RF signal when transmitted, the network node may control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of one or more transmitters broadcasting the RF signal. For example, a network node may use an antenna array (referred to as a "phased array" or "antenna array") that creates RF beams that can be "steered" to point in different directions without actually moving the antenna. In particular, RF currents from the transmitters are fed to the respective antennas in the correct phase relationship such that radio waves from the separate antennas add together to increase radiation in the desired direction while canceling to suppress radiation in the undesired direction.

The transmit beams may be quasi-co-located, meaning that they appear to the receiver (e.g., UE) to have the same parameters, regardless of whether the transmit antennas of the network node itself are physically co-located. In NR, there are four types of quasi-co-located (QCL) relationships. In particular, a QCL relationship of a given type means that certain parameters with respect to a second reference RF signal on a second beam can be derived from information with respect to a source reference RF signal on a source beam. Thus, if the source reference RF signal is QCL type a, the receiver may use the source reference RF signal to estimate the doppler shift, doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type B, the receiver may use the source reference RF signal to estimate the doppler shift and doppler spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type C, the receiver may use the source reference RF signal to estimate the doppler shift and average delay of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL type D, the receiver may use the source reference RF signal to estimate spatial reception parameters of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

In receive beamforming, a receiver uses a receive beam to amplify an RF signal detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver may increase the gain setting of the antenna array in a particular direction and/or adjust the phase setting of the antenna array in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., increase the gain level of) an RF signal received from that direction. Thus, when the receiver is said to be beamformed in a certain direction, this means that the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gain in other directions, or that the beam gain in that direction is highest compared to the beam gain in that direction of all other receive beams available to the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength (e.g., reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.) of the RF signal received from that direction.

The transmit beam and the receive beam may be spatially correlated. The spatial relationship means that parameters of a second beam (e.g., a transmit beam or a receive beam) for a second reference signal may be derived from information about the first beam (e.g., the receive beam or the transmit beam) of the first reference signal. For example, the UE may use a particular receive beam to receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB)) from the base station. The UE may then form a transmit beam for transmitting an uplink reference signal (e.g., a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS)) to the base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

Note that depending on the entity forming the "downlink" beam, this beam may be either a transmit beam or a receive beam. For example, if the base station is forming a downlink beam to transmit reference signals to the UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE is forming a downlink beam, it is a reception beam that receives a downlink reference signal. Similarly, an "uplink" beam may be a transmit beam or a receive beam, depending on the entity that forms it. For example, if the base station is forming an uplink beam, it is an uplink receive beam, and if the UE is forming an uplink beam, it is an uplink transmit beam.

Electromagnetic spectrum is typically subdivided into various categories, bands, channels, etc., based on frequency/wavelength. In 5GNR, two initial operating bands have been identified as frequency range names FR1 (410 MHz-7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz-52.6 GHz). It should be appreciated that although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6GHz, FR1 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the "sub-6 GHz" band in various documents and articles. With respect to FR2, a similar naming problem sometimes occurs, which is commonly (interchangeably) referred to in documents and articles as the "millimeter wave" band, although it differs from the Extremely High Frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz-300 GHz) identified by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as the "millimeter wave" band.

The frequency between FR1 and FR2 is commonly referred to as the mid-band frequency. Recent 5G NR studies have identified the operating band for these mid-band frequencies as frequency range designation FR3 (7.125 GHz-24.25 GHz). The frequency bands falling within FR3 may inherit FR1 characteristics and/or FR2 characteristics, and thus may effectively extend the characteristics of FR1 and/or FR2 to mid-band frequencies. Furthermore, higher frequency bands are currently being explored to extend 5G NR operation beyond 52.6 GHz. For example, three higher operating bands have been identified as frequency range names FR4a or FR4-1 (52.6 GHz-71 GHz), FR4 (52.6 GHz-114.25 GHz) and FR5 (114.25 GHz-300 GHz). Each of these higher frequency bands falls within the EHF frequency band.

In view of the above, unless specifically stated otherwise, it is to be understood that, if used herein, the term "sub-6 GHz" or the like may broadly represent frequencies that may be less than 6GHz, may be within FR1, or may include mid-band frequencies. Furthermore, unless specifically stated otherwise, it should be understood that if the term "millimeter wave" or the like is used herein, it may be broadly meant to include mid-band frequencies, frequencies that may be within FR2, FR4-a or FR4-1 and/or FR5, or may be within the EHF band.

In a multi-carrier system (e.g., 5G), one of the carrier frequencies is referred to as a "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", and the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as "secondary carriers" or "secondary serving cells" or "scells". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier operating on a primary frequency (e.g., FR 1) used by the UE 104/182 and the cell in which the UE 104/182 performs an initial Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiates an RRC connection reestablishment procedure. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels and may be a carrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case). The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR 2), where once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier, the carrier may be configured and may be used to provide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carrier may be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may contain only the necessary signaling information and signals, e.g., since the primary uplink and downlink carriers are typically UE-specific, those signaling information and signals that are UE-specific may not be present in the secondary carrier. This means that different UEs 104/182 in a cell may have different downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplink primary carrier. The network can change the primary carrier of any UE 104/182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance the load on the different carriers. Because the "serving cell" (whether the PCell or SCell) corresponds to the carrier frequency/component carrier on which a certain base station communicates, the terms "cell," "serving cell," "component carrier," "carrier frequency," and the like may be used interchangeably.

For example, still referring to fig. 1, one of the frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 may be an anchor carrier (or "PCell") and the other frequencies used by the macrocell base station 102 and/or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers ("scells"). The simultaneous transmission and/or reception of multiple carriers enables the UE 104/182 to significantly increase its data transmission and/or reception rate. For example, two 20MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically result in a doubling of the data rate (i.e., 40 MHz) compared to the data rate obtained for a single 20MHz carrier.

The wireless communication system 100 may also include a UE 164 that may communicate with the macrocell base station 102 via a communication link 120 and/or with the mmW base station 180 via a mmW communication link 184. For example, the macrocell base station 102 may support a PCell and one or more scells for the UE 164, and the mmW base station 180 may support one or more scells for the UE 164.

In some cases, UE 164 and UE 182 may be capable of side link communication. A side-link capable UE (SL-UE) may communicate with base station 102 over communication link 120 using a Uu interface (i.e., an air interface between the UE and the base station). SL-UEs (e.g., UE 164, UE 182) may also communicate directly with each other over wireless side link 160 using a PC5 interface (i.e., an air interface between side link capable UEs). The wireless side link (or simply "side link") is an adaptation of the core cellular network (e.g., LTE, NR) standard that allows direct communication between two or more UEs without requiring the communication to pass through the base station. The side link communication may be unicast or multicast and may be used for device-to-device (D2D) media sharing, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, internet of vehicles (V2X) communication (e.g., cellular V2X (cV 2X) communication, enhanced V2X (eV 2X) communication, etc.), emergency rescue applications, and the like. One or more of a group of SL-UEs communicating with a side link may be located within geographic coverage area 110 of base station 102. Other SL-UEs in such a group may be outside of the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 102 or otherwise unable to receive transmissions from the base station 102. In some cases, groups of SL-UEs communicating via side link communications may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system, where each SL-UE transmits to each other SL-UE in the group. In some cases, base station 102 facilitates scheduling of resources for side link communications. In other cases, side-link communications are performed between SL-UEs without involving base station 102.

In an aspect, the side link 160 may operate over a wireless communication medium of interest that may be shared with other vehicles and/or infrastructure access points and other wireless communications between other RATs. A "medium" may include one or more time, frequency, and/or spatial communication resources (e.g., covering one or more channels across one or more carriers) associated with wireless communication between one or more transmitter/receiver pairs. In an aspect, the medium of interest may correspond to at least a portion of an unlicensed frequency band shared between the various RATs. Although different licensed frequency bands have been reserved for certain communication systems (e.g., by government entities such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)) these systems, particularly those employing small cell access points, have recently expanded operation into unlicensed frequency bands such as unlicensed national information infrastructure (U-NII) bands used by Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, most notably IEEE 802.11x WLAN technology commonly referred to as "Wi-Fi. Example systems of this type include different variations of CDMA systems, TDMA systems, FDMA systems, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems, and the like.

It should be noted that although fig. 1 only shows two of these UEs as SL-UEs (i.e., UEs 164 and 182), any of the UEs shown may be SL-UEs. Furthermore, although only UE 182 is described as being capable of beamforming, any of the UEs shown (including UE 164) may be capable of beamforming. Where SL-UEs are capable of beamforming, they may beamform towards each other (i.e., towards other SL-UEs), towards other UEs (e.g., UE 104), towards base stations (e.g., base stations 102, 180, small cell 102', access point 150), etc. Thus, in some cases, UE 164 and UE 182 may utilize beamforming on side link 160.

In the example of fig. 1, any of the illustrated UEs (shown as a single UE 104 in fig. 1 for simplicity) may receive signals 124 from one or more geospatial vehicles (SVs) 112 (e.g., satellites). In an aspect, SV 112 may be part of a satellite positioning system that UE 104 may use as a standalone source of location information. Satellite positioning systems typically include a transmitter system (e.g., SV 112) positioned such that a receiver (e.g., UE 104) is able to determine its position on or above the earth based at least in part on positioning signals (e.g., signal 124) received from the transmitter. Such transmitters typically transmit a signal marked with a repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) code of a set number of chips. While typically located in SV 112, the transmitter may sometimes be located on a ground-based control station, base station 102, and/or other UEs 104. UE 104 may include one or more dedicated receivers specifically designed to receive signals 124 in order to derive geographic location information from SV 112.

In a satellite positioning system, the use of signals 124 may be enhanced by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) that may be associated with or otherwise enable use with one or more global and/or regional navigation satellite systems. For example, SBAS may include augmentation systems that provide integrity information, differential corrections, etc., such as Wide Area Augmentation Systems (WAAS), european Geosynchronous Navigation Overlay Services (EGNOS), multi-functional satellite augmentation systems (MSAS), global Positioning System (GPS) assisted geographic augmentation navigation, or GPS and geographic augmentation navigation systems (GAGAN), etc. Thus, as used herein, a satellite positioning system may include any combination of one or more global and/or regional navigation satellites associated with such one or more satellite positioning systems.

In an aspect, SV 112 may alternatively or additionally be part of one or more non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). In NTN, SV 112 is connected to an earth station (also referred to as a ground station, NTN gateway, or gateway), which in turn is connected to an element in a 5G network, such as modified base station 102 (without a ground antenna) or a network node in a 5 GC. This element will in turn provide access to other elements in the 5G network and ultimately to entities external to the 5G network such as internet web servers and other user devices. As such, UE 104 may receive communication signals (e.g., signal 124) from SV 112 instead of or in addition to communication signals from ground base station 102.

The wireless communication system 100 may also include one or more UEs, such as UE 190, that are indirectly connected to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as "side links"). In the example of fig. 1, UE 190 has a D2D P P link 192 with one of the ues 104 connected to one of the base stations 102 (e.g., UE 190 may indirectly obtain a cellular connection over the D2D P2P link) and has a D2D P P link 194 with WLAN STA 152 connected to WLAN AP 150 (UE 190 may indirectly obtain a WLAN-based internet connection over the D2D P P link). In one example, the D2D P P links 192 and 194 may be supported with any well-known D2DRAT, such as LTE direct (LTE-D), wiFi direct (WiFi-D),Etc.

Fig. 2A illustrates an example wireless network structure 200. For example, the 5gc 210 (also referred to as a Next Generation Core (NGC)) may be functionally viewed as a control plane (C-plane) function 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane (U-plane) function 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to a data network, IP routing, etc.), which cooperate to form a core network. A user plane interface (NG-U) 213 and a control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 to the 5gc 210 and specifically to the user plane function 212 and the control plane function 214, respectively. In further configurations, the NG-eNB 224 can also connect to the 5GC 210 via the NG-C215 to the control plane function 214 and the NG-U213 to the user plane function 212. Further, the ng-eNB 224 may communicate directly with the gNB 222 via a backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the next generation RAN (NG-RAN) 220 may have one or more gnbs 222, while other configurations include one or more of both NG-enbs 224 and gnbs 222. Either (or both) of the gNB 222 or the ng-eNB 224 can communicate with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

Another optional aspect may include a location server 230 that may communicate with the 5gc 210 to provide location assistance for the UE 204. The location server 230 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or may alternatively each correspond to a single server. The location server 230 may be configured to support one or more location services for UEs 204 that may be connected to the location server 230 via the core network 5gc 210 and/or via the internet (not illustrated). Furthermore, the location server 230 may be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively may be external to the core network (e.g., a third party server, such as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) server or a service server).

Fig. 2B illustrates another example wireless network structure 250. The 5gc 260 (which may correspond to the 5gc 210 in fig. 2A) may be regarded above as a control plane function provided by an access and mobility management function (AMF) 264, and a user plane function provided by a User Plane Function (UPF) 262, which cooperate to form a core network (i.e., the 5gc 260). Functions of AMF 264 include: registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transfer of Session Management (SM) messages between one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any UE described herein) and Session Management Function (SMF) 266, transparent proxy services for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transfer of Short Message Service (SMs) messages between a UE 204 and a Short Message Service Function (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor functionality (SEAF). AMF 264 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and UE 204 and receives an intermediate key established as a result of the UE 204 authentication procedure. In the case of UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) based authentication of a user identity module (USIM), the AMF 264 extracts the security material from AUSF. The functions of AMF 264 also include Security Context Management (SCM). The SCM receives a key from SEAF, which uses the key to derive an access network specific key. The functionality of AMF 264 also includes location service management for policing services, transmission of location service messages for use between UE 204 and Location Management Function (LMF) 270 (which acts as location server 230), transmission of location service messages for use between NG-RAN 220 and LMF 270, evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer identifier assignment for use in interoperation with EPS, and UE 204 mobility event notification. In addition, AMF 264 also supports functionality for non-3 GPP (third generation partnership project) access networks.

The functions of UPF 262 include: acting as an anchor point for intra-RAT/inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an external Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session point to an interconnect to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, quality of service (QoS) handling of the user plane (e.g., uplink/downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in the downlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding one or more "end marks" to the source RAN node. UPF 262 may also support the transfer of location service messages between UE 204 and a location server (such as SLP 272) on the user plane.

The functions of the SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, traffic steering configuration at the UPF 262 for routing traffic to the correct destination, partial control of policy enforcement and QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface used by the SMF 266 to communicate with the AMF 264 is referred to as the N11 interface.

Another optional aspect may include an LMF 270 that may be in communication with the 5gc 260 to provide location assistance for the UE 204. The LMF 270 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or may alternatively each correspond to a single server. The LMF 270 may be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204, which may be connected to the LMF 270 via the core network 5gc 260 and/or via the internet (not illustrated). SLP 272 may support similar functionality as LMF 270, but LMF 270 may communicate with AMF 264, NG-RAN 220, and UE 204 on the control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to convey signaling messages rather than voice or data), and SLP 272 may communicate with UE 204 and external clients (e.g., third party server 274) on the user plane (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice and/or data, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and/or IP).

Yet another optional aspect may include a third party server 274 that may communicate with the LMF 270, SLP 272, 5gc 260 (e.g., via AMF 264 and/or UPF 262), NG-RAN 220, and/or UE 204 to obtain location information (e.g., a location estimate) of the UE 204. As such, in some cases, the third party server 274 may be referred to as a location services (LCS) client or an external client. Third party server 274 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively may each correspond to a single server.

The user plane interface 263 and the control plane interface 265 connect the 5gc 260, and in particular the UPF 262 and the AMF 264, to one or more of the gnbs 222 and/or NG-enbs 224, respectively, in the NG-RAN 220. The interface between the gNB222 and/or the ng-eNB 224 and the AMF 264 is referred to as the "N2" interface, while the interface between the gNB222 and/or the ng-eNB 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the "N3" interface. The gNB222 and/or the NG-eNB 224 of the NG-RAN 220 may communicate directly with each other via a backhaul connection 223 referred to as an "Xn-C" interface. One or more of the gNB222 and/or the ng-eNB 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 over a wireless interface referred to as a "Uu" interface.

The functionality of the gNB 222 is divided between a gNB central unit (gNB-CU) 226, one or more gNB distributed units (gNB-DUs) 228, and one or more gNB radio units (gNB-RUs) 229. gNB-CU 226 is a logical node that includes base station functions that communicate user data, mobility control, radio access network sharing, positioning, session management, and so forth, in addition to those functions specifically assigned to gNB-DU 228. More specifically, the gNB-CU 226 generally hosts the Radio Resource Control (RRC), service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. The gNB-DU 228 is a logical node that generally hosts the Radio Link Control (RLC) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers of the gNB 222. Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 may support one or more cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU 228. The interface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and the one or more gNB-DUs 228 is referred to as the "F1" interface. The Physical (PHY) layer functionality of the gNB 222 is typically hosted by one or more independent gNB-RUs 229 that perform functions such as power amplification and signal transmission/reception. The interface between gNB-DU 228 and gNB-RU 229 is referred to as the "Fx" interface. Thus, the UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via the RRC, SDAP and PDCP layers, with the gNB-DU 228 via the RLC and MAC layers, and with the gNB-RU 229 via the PHY layer.

Figures 3A, 3B, and 3C illustrate several example components (represented by corresponding blocks) that may be incorporated into a UE 302 (which may correspond to any UE described herein), a base station 304 (which may correspond to any base station described herein), and a network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any network function described herein, including a location server 230 and an LMF 270, or alternatively may be independent of the NG-RAN 220 and/or 5gc 210/260 infrastructure shown in figures 2A and 2B, such as a private network) to support file transfer operations as taught herein. It will be appreciated that these components may be implemented in different implementations in different types of equipment (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system on a chip (SoC), etc.). The illustrated components may also be incorporated into other equipment in a communication system. For example, other equipment in the system may include components similar to those described as providing functionality. Further, a given piece of equipment may include one or more of these components. For example, an apparatus may include multiple transceiver components that enable the apparatus to operate on multiple carriers and/or communicate via different technologies.

The UE 302 and the base station 304 each include one or more Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) transceivers 310 and 350, respectively, that provide means (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for blocking transmissions, etc.) for communicating via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown), such as an NR network, an LTE network, a GSM network, etc. The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may each be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes (e.g., other ues, access points, base stations (e.g., enbs, gnbs), etc.) via at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest (e.g., a set of time/frequency resources in a particular spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 may be variously configured to transmit and encode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) according to a specified RAT, and conversely to receive and decode signals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), respectively. Specifically, WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 each include: one or more transmitters 314 and 354 for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and 358, respectively, and one or more receivers 312 and 352 for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

In at least some cases, UE 302 and base station 304 each also include one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360, respectively. Short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be connected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, and provided for communicating over a wireless communication medium of interest via at least one designated RAT (e.g., wiFi, LTE-D,PC5, dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC), wireless Access for Vehicle Environments (WAVE), near Field Communication (NFC), etc.) with other network nodes such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc. (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for blocking transmissions, etc.). Short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be variously configured to transmit and encode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) and conversely receive and decode signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.), respectively, according to a specified RAT. Specifically, short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 each include: one or more transmitters 324 and 364 for transmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368, respectively, and one or more receivers 322 and 362 for receiving and decoding signals 328 and 368, respectively. As a specific example, the short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be WiFi transceivers,/>Transceiver,/>And/or/>A transceiver, NFC transceiver, or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and/or internet of vehicles (V2X) transceiver.

In at least some cases, UE 302 and base station 304 also include satellite signal receivers 330 and 370. Satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 may be coupled to one or more antennas 336 and 376, respectively, and may provide equipment for receiving and/or measuring satellite positioning/communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. In the case where satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 are satellite positioning system receivers, satellite positioning/communication signals 338 and 378 may be Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals, galileo signals, beidou signals, indian regional navigation satellite system (NAVC), quasi-zenith satellite system (QZSS), or the like. In the case of satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 being non-terrestrial network (NTN) receivers, satellite positioning/communication signals 338 and 378 may be communication signals (e.g., carrying control and/or user data) originating from a 5G network. Satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 may include any suitable hardware and/or software for receiving and processing satellite positioning/communication signals 338 and 378, respectively. Satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 may request the appropriate information and operations from other systems and, at least in some cases, perform calculations using measurements obtained by any suitable satellite positioning system algorithm to determine the location of UE 302 and base station 304, respectively.

The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include one or more network transceivers 380 and 390, respectively, that provide means (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, etc.) for communicating with other network entities (e.g., other base stations 304, other network entities 306). For example, the base station 304 can employ one or more network transceivers 380 to communicate with other base stations 304 or network entities 306 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links. As another example, the network entity 306 may use one or more network transceivers 390 to communicate with one or more base stations 304 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links, or with other network entities 306 over one or more wired or wireless core network interfaces.

The transceiver may be configured to communicate over a wired or wireless link. The transceiver (whether a wired transceiver or a wireless transceiver) includes transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) and receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352, 362). In some implementations, the transceiver may be an integrated device (e.g., implementing the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry in a single device), may include separate transmitter circuitry and separate receiver circuitry in some implementations, or may be implemented in other ways in other implementations. Transmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry of the wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) may be coupled to one or more wired network interface ports. The wireless transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) may include or be coupled to a plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as an antenna array, that allows the respective equipment (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform transmit "beamforming," as described herein. Similarly, wireless receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352, 362) may include or be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as an antenna array, that allows corresponding equipment (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform receive beamforming, as described herein. In an aspect, the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry may share the same plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366) such that the respective equipment may only receive or only transmit at a given time, rather than both receive and transmit at the same time. The wireless transceivers (e.g., WWAN transceivers 310 and 350, short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360) may also include a Network Listening Module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

As used herein, various wireless transceivers (e.g., transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360 in some implementations, and network transceivers 380 and 390) and wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 380 and 390 in some implementations) may be generally characterized as "transceivers," at least one transceiver, "or" one or more transceivers. In this way, it can be deduced from the type of communication performed whether a particular transceiver is a wired or wireless transceiver. For example, backhaul communication between network devices or servers typically involves signaling via a wired transceiver, while wireless communication between a UE (e.g., UE 302) and a base station (e.g., base station 304) typically involves signaling via a wireless transceiver.

The UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 also include other components that may be used in connection with the operations disclosed herein. The UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 comprise one or more processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, for providing functionality relating to, for example, wireless communication, and for providing other processing functionality. Accordingly, processors 332, 384, and 394 may provide means for processing, such as means for determining, means for calculating, means for receiving, means for transmitting, means for indicating, and the like. In an aspect, processors 332, 384, and 394 may include, for example, one or more general purpose processors, multi-core processors, central Processing Units (CPUs), ASICs, digital Signal Processors (DSPs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), other programmable logic devices or processing circuitry, or various combinations thereof.

The UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 comprise memory circuitry implementing memories 340, 386, and 396 (e.g., each comprising a memory device), respectively, for maintaining information (e.g., information indicating reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, etc.). Accordingly, memories 340, 386, and 396 may provide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining, and the like. In some cases, UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may include positioning components 342, 388, and 398, respectively. The positioning components 342, 388, and 398 may be hardware circuits as part of or coupled to the processors 332, 384, and 394, respectively, that when executed cause the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. In other aspects, the positioning components 342, 388, and 398 may be external to the processors 332, 384, and 394 (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the positioning components 342, 388, and 398 may be memory modules stored in the memories 340, 386, and 396, respectively, that when executed by the processors 332, 384, and 394 (or a modem processing system, another processing system, etc.) cause the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. Fig. 3A illustrates possible locations of a positioning component 342, which may be part of, for example, one or more WWAN transceivers 310, memory 340, one or more processors 332, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component. Fig. 3B illustrates possible locations for a positioning component 388, which may be part of, for example, one or more WWAN transceivers 350, memory 386, one or more processors 384, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component. Fig. 3C illustrates a possible location of a positioning component 398, which may be part of, for example, one or more network transceivers 390, memory 396, one or more processors 394, or any combination thereof, or may be a stand-alone component.

The UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to the one or more processors 332 to provide means for sensing or detecting movement and/or orientation information independent of motion data derived from signals received by the one or more WWAN transceivers 310, the one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320, and/or the satellite signal receiver 330. As an example, the sensor 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric altimeter), and/or any other type of movement detection sensor. Further, the sensor 344 may include a plurality of different types of devices and combine their outputs to provide movement information. For example, the sensor 344 may use a combination of multi-axis accelerometers and orientation sensors to provide the ability to calculate position in a two-dimensional (2D) and/or three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system.

In addition, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346 that provides means for providing an indication (e.g., an audible and/or visual indication) to a user and/or for receiving user input (e.g., upon actuation of a sensing device (such as a keypad, touch screen, microphone, etc.) by the user). Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 may also include a user interface.

Referring in more detail to the one or more processors 384, in the downlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the processor 384. The one or more processors 384 may implement functions for an RRC layer, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. The one or more processors 384 may provide: RRC layer functionality associated with broadcast of system information (e.g., master Information Block (MIB), system Information Block (SIB)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functions associated with header compression/decompression, security (ciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with transmission of upper layer PDUs, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC Service Data Units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs and re-ordering of RLC data PDUs by error correction of automatic repeat request (ARQ); MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

The transmitter 354 and the receiver 352 may implement layer 1 (L1) functions associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1, including the Physical (PHY) layer, may include: error detection on a transmission channel, forward Error Correction (FEC) decoding/decoding of the transmission channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, modulation/demodulation of physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 processes the mapping to the signal constellation based on various modulation schemes, e.g., binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) subcarriers, multiplexed with reference signals (e.g., pilots) in the time and/or frequency domain, and then combined together using an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying the time domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM symbol streams are spatially pre-coded to produce a plurality of spatial streams. Channel estimates from the channel estimator may be used to determine coding and modulation schemes and for spatial processing. The channel estimate may be derived from reference signals and/or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 302. Each spatial stream may then be provided to one or more different antennas 356. Transmitter 354 may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives signals through its corresponding antenna 316. The receiver 312 recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to the one or more processors 332. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The receiver 312 may perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE 302. If the destination of the multiple spatial streams is UE 302, they may be combined into a single OFDM symbol stream by receiver 312. The receiver 312 then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal includes a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier, as well as the reference signal, are recovered and demodulated by determining the signal constellation points most likely to be transmitted by the base station 304. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates computed by a channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals that were originally transmitted by the base station 304 on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to one or more processors 332 that implement layer 3 (L3) and layer (L2) 2 functionality.

In the uplink, one or more processors 332 provide demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. The one or more processors 332 are also responsible for error detection.

Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlink transmissions by the base station 304, the one or more processors 332 provide: RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression/decompression and security (ciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with upper layer PDU delivery, error correction by ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs and re-ordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto Transport Blocks (TBs), de-multiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction by hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling and logical channel prioritization.

Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from reference signals or feedback transmitted by the base station 304 may be used by the transmitter 314 to select an appropriate coding and modulation scheme and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antennas 316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

The uplink transmissions are processed at the base station 304 in a manner similar to that described in connection with the receiver functionality at the UE 302. The receiver 352 receives signals via its corresponding antenna 356. Receiver 352 recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to one or more processors 384.

In the uplink, one or more processors 384 provide demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE 302. IP packets from the one or more processors 384 may be provided to a core network. The one or more processors 384 are also responsible for error detection.

For convenience, UE 302, base station 304, and/or network entity 306 are illustrated in fig. 3A, 3B, and 3C as including various components that may be configured according to various examples described herein. However, it will be appreciated that the components shown may have different functions in different designs. In particular, the various components in fig. 3A-3C are optional in alternative configurations, and various aspects include configurations that may vary due to design choices, cost, use of equipment, or other considerations. For example, in the case of fig. 3A, a particular implementation of the UE 302 may omit the WWAN transceiver 310 (e.g., a wearable device or tablet computer or PC or laptop computer may have Wi-Fi and/or bluetooth capabilities without cellular capabilities), or may omit the short-range wireless transceiver 320 (e.g., cellular only, etc.), or may omit the satellite signal receiver 330, or may omit the sensor 344, etc. In another example, in the case of fig. 3B, a particular implementation of the base station 304 may omit the WWAN transceiver 350 (e.g., a Wi-Fi "hot spot" access point that is not cellular capable), or may omit the short-range wireless transceiver 360 (e.g., cellular only, etc.), or may omit the satellite receiver 370, and so on. For brevity, illustrations of various alternative configurations are not provided herein, but will be readily understood by those skilled in the art.

The various components of the UE 302, base station 304, and network entity 306 may be communicatively coupled to each other via data buses 334, 382, and 392, respectively. In an aspect, the data buses 334, 382, and 392 may form or be part of the communication interfaces of the UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306, respectively. For example, where different logical entities are contained in the same device (e.g., a gNB and a location server function incorporated into the same base station 304), data buses 334, 382, and 392 may provide communications therebetween.

The components of fig. 3A, 3B, and 3C may be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, the components of fig. 3A, 3B, and 3C may be implemented in one or more circuits, such as, for example, one or more processors and/or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors). Here, each circuit may use and/or incorporate at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide that function. For example, some or all of the functions represented by blocks 310-346 may be implemented by a processor and memory components of UE 302 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and/or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Similarly, some or all of the functions represented by blocks 350 through 388 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of base station 304 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and/or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). Further, some or all of the functions represented by blocks 390 through 398 may be implemented by a processor and memory component of the network entity 306 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and/or by appropriate configuration of the processor component). For simplicity, various operations, acts, and/or functions are described herein as being performed by a UE, by a base station, by a network entity, etc. However, it will be appreciated that such operations, acts, and/or functions may in fact be performed by specific components or combinations of components (such as processors 332, 384, 394, transceivers 310, 320, 350, and 360, memories 340, 386, and 396, positioning components 342, 388, and 398, etc.) of UE 302, base station 304, network entity 306, and the like.

In some designs, the network entity 306 may be implemented as a core network component. In other designs, the network entity 306 may operate differently than a network operator or cellular network infrastructure (e.g., NG RAN 220 and/or 5gc 210/260). For example, the network entity 306 may be a component of a private network that may be configured to communicate with the UE 302 via the base station 304 or independently of the base station 304 (e.g., over a non-cellular communication link such as WiFi).

NR supports several cellular network based positioning techniques including downlink based positioning methods, uplink based positioning methods, and downlink and uplink based positioning methods. The downlink-based positioning method comprises the following steps: observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) in LTE, downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA) in NR, and downlink departure angle (DL-AoD) in NR.

Fig. 4 illustrates examples of various positioning methods in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In an OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, as illustrated by scenario 410, the UE measures differences between time of arrival (ToA) of reference signals (e.g., positioning Reference Signals (PRS)) received from paired base stations, referred to as Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) or time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements, and reports these differences to a positioning entity. More specifically, the UE receives Identifiers (IDs) of a reference base station (e.g., a serving base station) and a plurality of non-reference base stations in the assistance data. The UE then measures RSTD between the reference base station and each non-reference base station. Based on the known locations of the involved base stations and the RSTD measurements, a positioning entity (e.g., a UE for UE-based positioning or a location server for UE-assisted positioning) may estimate the location of the UE. UL-TDOA is similar to DL-TDOA, but is based on uplink reference signals (e.g., sounding Reference Signals (SRS)) transmitted by the UE.

For DL-AoD positioning, as illustrated by scenario 420, the positioning entity uses beam reports from the UE of received signal strength measurements for multiple downlink transmit beams to determine the angle(s) between the UE and the transmitting base station(s). The positioning entity may then estimate the location of the UE based on the determined angle(s) and the known location(s) of the transmitting base station(s).

For UL-AoA positioning, as illustrated by scenario 430, one or more base stations measure received signal strength of one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) received from a UE on one or more uplink receive beams. The positioning entity uses the signal strength measurements and the angle(s) of the receive beam(s) to determine the angle(s) between the UE and the base station(s). Based on the determined angle(s) and the known position(s) of the base station(s), the positioning entity may then estimate the position of the UE.

The positioning method based on the downlink and the uplink comprises the following steps: enhanced cell ID (E-CID) positioning and multiple Round Trip Time (RTT) positioning (also referred to as "multi-cell RTT" and "multi-RTT"), as illustrated by scenario 440.

In a single cell RTT procedure, a first entity (e.g., a base station or UE) transmits a first RTT-related signal (e.g., PRS or SRS) to a second entity (e.g., a UE or base station) that transmits a second RTT-related signal (e.g., SRS or PRS) back to the first entity. Each entity measures a time difference between a time of arrival (ToA) of the received RTT-related signal and a transmission time of the transmitted RTT-related signal. This time difference is referred to as the received transmission (Rx-Tx) time difference. The Rx-Tx time difference measurement may be made, or may be adjusted, to include only the time difference between the received signal and the nearest subframe boundary of the transmitted signal. The two entities may then send their Rx-Tx time difference measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 270 or location management functionality) that calculates the round trip propagation time (i.e., RTT) between the two entities from the two Rx-Tx time difference measurements (e.g., as the sum of the two Rx-Tx time difference measurements). Alternatively, one entity may send its Rx-Tx time difference measurement to another entity, which then calculates RTT. The distance between these two entities may be determined from RTT and a known signal speed (e.g., speed of light).

For multi-cell RTT positioning, as illustrated by scenario 440, a first entity (e.g., a UE or base station) performs RTT positioning procedures with a plurality of second entities (e.g., a plurality of base stations or UEs) to enable a location of the first entity to be determined (e.g., using multilateration) based on a distance to the second entity and a known location of the second entity. RTT and multi-RTT methods may be combined with other positioning techniques (such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD) to improve position accuracy.

The E-CID positioning method is based on Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements. In the E-CID, the UE reports a serving cell ID, a Timing Advance (TA), and identifiers of detected neighbor base stations, estimated timing, and signal strength. The location of the UE is then estimated based on the information and the known location of the base station(s).

To assist in positioning operations, a location server (e.g., location server 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may provide assistance data to the UE. For example, the assistance data may include: an identifier of a base station (or cell/TRP of the base station) from which the reference signal is measured, a reference signal configuration parameter (e.g., number of consecutive positioning subframes, periodicity of positioning subframes, muting sequence, frequency hopping sequence, reference signal identifier, reference signal bandwidth, etc.), and/or other parameters suitable for a particular positioning method. Alternatively, the assistance data may originate directly from the base station itself (e.g., in periodically broadcast overhead messages, etc.). In some cases, the UE itself may be able to detect the neighboring network node without using assistance data.

In the case of an OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, the assistance data may further comprise an expected RSTD value and associated uncertainty, or a search window around the expected RSTD. In some cases, the expected range of values for RSTD may be +/-500 microseconds (μs). In some cases, the range of values of uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be +/-32 μs when any resources used for positioning measurements are in FR 1. In other cases, the range of values of uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be +/-8 μs when all resources used for positioning measurements are in FR 2.

The position estimate may be referred to by other names such as position estimate, location, position fix, and the like. The location estimate may be geodetic and include coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), or may be municipal and include a street address, postal address, or some other verbally-located description of the location. The location estimate may be further defined relative to some other known location or in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). The position estimate may include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume within which the position is expected to be contained with some specified or default confidence).

Positioning in millimeter wave systems is of great interest in 3GPP, which currently supports a variety of positioning methods, such as the positioning method illustrated in fig. 4, and in the case of release 16 (rel.16), assistance data may be provided from the network to the UE using NR positioning protocol (NRPP) of 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.455 or using LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) of 3GPP TS 37.355. For example, knowledge of the beam shape/pattern used at the gNB on PRS may be transmitted to the LMF, which may feed it back to the UE, and the UE may report RSRP to the LMF or the gNB where a positioning estimate may be made.

However, angle-based positioning (i.e., DL-AoD, DL-ZoD, UL-AoA, and UL-ZoA) is currently supported only on the gNB side and not on the UE side. The gNB has a larger panel (more antennas) in FR2 than the UE-e.g. 8 x 8 or 64 x 16 on the gNB side versus 2 x 2 or 4 x 1 on the UE side-and with a larger number of antennas it is easier to estimate and locate the angle information taking into account the decreasing beam width as the antenna size increases. In particular, for angle-based positioning methods, a UE with only four antenna elements in FR2 is typically not able to estimate the angle with sufficient accuracy. Therefore, UE-side angle-based positioning is not defined for FR 2.

As the UE moves to FR4 and above (e.g., 52.6GHz or above), a larger antenna array will be possible on the UE side. Larger arrays have smaller beamwidths, allowing for better positioning accuracy or positioning, which may enable angular estimation with sufficient accuracy to support UE-side angle-based positioning, particularly in a UE-stationary scenario, where the beampattern has a more easily predictable shape. If so, this would require reporting dynamic capabilities with respect to angle-based positioning. The current specifications for reporting capability information regarding which positioning methods (e.g., TDOA, RTT, aoA, zoA, aoD, zoD, etc.) are supported do not take into account UE-side angle estimation and thus do not describe how or when UE-side angle estimation capabilities should be reported.

Fig. 5 is a flow diagram of an example process 500 associated with dynamic positioning capability reporting in the millimeter wave band in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In some implementations, one or more of the process blocks of fig. 5 may be performed by a User Equipment (UE) (e.g., UE 104). In some implementations, one or more of the process blocks of fig. 5 may be performed by another device or a group of devices separate from or including the UE. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the process blocks of fig. 5 may be performed by one or more components of the UE 302, such as the processor(s) 332, the memory 340, the WWAN transceiver(s) 310, the short-range wireless transceiver(s) 320, the satellite signal receiver 330, the sensor(s) 344, the user interface 346, and the positioning component(s) 342, any or all of which may be means for performing the operations of the process 500.

As shown in fig. 5, process 500 may include: an angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined (block 510). The means for performing the operations of block 510 may include the processor 332, the memory 340, or the WWAN transceiver 310 of the UE 302. For example, the UE 302 may use the processor 332 to determine an angle-based estimation capability of the UE. In some aspects, determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE includes: determining that the gNB side angle estimation is supported and the UE side angle estimation is not supported; determining that the gNB side angle estimation is not supported and that the UE side angle estimation is supported; determining to support both the gNB side angle estimation and the UE side angle estimation; or determining that both the gNB side angle estimation and the UE side angle estimation are not supported. In an aspect, for the gNB side angle estimation, the UE may measure RSRP of different beams (such as PRS beams or beams with wider bandwidths) from the gNB. In some aspects, the dynamic capabilities of the angle-based estimation method may vary according to one or more time-varying factors, including but not limited to, capability aspects, application aspects, and performance aspects.

In some aspects, determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE includes determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on at least one of: the size of the antenna array of the UE; the number of antenna elements currently being used in the antenna array of the UE; the beamwidth of the beam being measured; a frequency range over which the UE is operating; a maximum Operating Bandwidth (OBW) of a frequency range over which the UE is operating; the number of possible Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) samples; or a combination thereof.

In some aspects, determining the UE's angle-based estimation capability includes determining to support UE-side angle estimation based on at least one of: determining that the size of the antenna array of the UE is above a size threshold; determining that a number of antenna elements currently being used in an antenna array of the UE is above an antenna utilization threshold; determining that the beamwidth of the beam being measured is below a beamwidth threshold; determining that a frequency range over which the UE is operating is above a frequency threshold; determining that the maximum OBW is above an OBW threshold; it is determined that the number of possible PRS samples is above a PRS sample number threshold.

In some aspects, determining the UE's angle-based estimation capability includes determining that UE-side angle estimation is not supported based on at least one of: determining that the size of the antenna array of the UE is not higher than a size threshold; determining that a number of antenna elements currently being used in an antenna array of the UE is not above an antenna utilization threshold; determining that the beamwidth of the beam being measured is not below a beamwidth threshold; determining that a frequency range over which the UE is operating is not above a frequency threshold; determining that the maximum OBW is not above an OBW threshold; it is determined that the number of possible PRS samples is not above a PRS sample number threshold.

Larger OBW and/or higher carrier frequencies support larger antenna arrays and narrower beamwidths to facilitate gNB side estimation accuracy. Also, the higher the carrier frequency or the higher the OBW, the higher the number of possible frequency samples for PRS may be, so that positioning accuracy based on averaging multiple samples may be improved. Another capability aspect is whether the UE has a large antenna array and how many antenna elements to use at any point in time. Larger antenna arrays generally have better angular estimation accuracy than smaller antenna arrays. The number of antenna elements on the UE side and the number of antenna elements used at any point in time may depend on thermal conditions, power conditions, circuit architecture conditions, the number of antenna modules/panels used, the frequency response of the antenna elements and RF components, application requirements, etc.

In some aspects, determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE includes: an angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined based on mobility settings for which positioning assistance is requested by an application on the UE. For example, in some aspects, if the UE's speed is below a speed threshold, the UE may request a UE-side angle estimate.

In some aspects, determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE includes: the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined based on the environment in which the UE is operating. In some aspects, determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on the environment in which the UE is operating includes determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on at least one of: the number of neighboring devices; the density of adjacent devices; network utilization; number of noise sources; the number of signal reflectors; or the number of signal blockers. For example, in some aspects, determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on the environment in which the UE is operating includes: consider the channel environment in which the UE is operating (indoor, outdoor, urban, rural, etc.), the density of the devices, the network rate, the number of noise sources or reflection sources, the number of obstructions or signal obstructions, etc. For example:

in the case of smaller inter-site distances (ISD), the likelihood that the gNB/LMF is at street level or has the same horizon as the UE is higher than in the case of larger ISD. This results in more clutter/blockage in the channel environment, which means that the likelihood of a good positioning estimate is lower.

In an indoor industrial type setting (with known barriers), for better accuracy, a higher frequency band can be used; for lower accuracy, a lower frequency band may be used.

In a urban type setting (with more dynamic barriers), the accuracy level can be dynamically specified.

In outdoor type settings where ISD is large, the path loss may result in only a lower frequency band being feasible, and thus UE-side angle estimation cannot be performed (because smaller arrays are used assuming the antenna array shares the array aperture in both the lower and higher frequency bands).

In some aspects, determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE includes: different angle-based estimation capabilities are determined for different frequency bands, frequency ranges, component carriers, frequency band combinations, positioning frequency layers, or combinations thereof supported by the UE.

As further shown in fig. 5, process 500 may include: the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is reported to the network entity (block 520). The means for performing the operations of block 520 may include the processor(s) 332, the memory 340, or the WWAN transceiver(s) 310 of the UE 302. For example, the UE 302 may report the UE's angle-based estimation capability to a network entity using transmitter(s) 314. In some aspects, reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to the network entity includes: reporting the angle-based estimation capability to a base station, a location server, or both. In some aspects, reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to the network entity includes: the angle-based estimation capability is reported according to a reporting configuration. In some aspects, the reporting configuration is provided to the UE by the base station or the location server.

In some aspects, the process 500 includes: the method comprises receiving an angle-based estimation configuration from a network entity, and performing the angle-based estimation according to the angle-based estimation configuration.

Process 500 may include additional implementations, such as any single implementation or any combination of implementations described below and/or in connection with one or more other processes described elsewhere herein. While fig. 5 shows exemplary blocks of process 500, in some implementations, process 500 may include additional blocks, fewer blocks, different blocks, or blocks arranged in a different manner than those depicted in fig. 5. Additionally or alternatively, two or more of the blocks of process 500 may be performed in parallel.

Fig. 6 is a flow diagram of an example process 600 associated with dynamic positioning capability reporting in the millimeter wave band in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In some implementations, one or more of the process blocks of fig. 6 may be performed by a network entity (e.g., base station 102, location server 172). In some implementations, one or more of the process blocks of fig. 6 may be performed by another device or a set of devices separate from or including the network entity. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the process blocks of fig. 6 may be performed by one or more components of the network entity 306, such as the processor(s) 394, the memory 396, the network transceiver(s) 390, and the positioning component(s) 398, any or all of which may be means for performing the operations of the process 600.

As shown in fig. 6, process 600 may include: information is received from a User Equipment (UE) indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE (block 610). The means for performing the operations of block 610 may include the processor(s) 394, the memory 396, or the network transceiver(s) 390 of the network entity 306. For example, the network entity 306 may use the network transceiver(s) 390 to receive information indicating the UE's angle-based estimation capability.

As further shown in fig. 6, process 600 may include: an angle-based estimation configuration is determined based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE (block 620). The means for performing the operations of block 620 may include the processor(s) 394, the memory 396, or the network transceiver(s) 390 of the network entity 306. For example, the network entity 306 may use the processor(s) 394 or the positioning component(s) 398 to determine an angle-based estimated configuration. In some aspects, the gNB/LMF may attempt or exclude different methods for positioning assistance based on UE reporting of supportable dynamic positioning capabilities or methods.

As further shown in fig. 6, process 600 may include: an angle-based estimation configuration is sent to the UE (block 630). The means for performing the operations of block 630 may include the processor 394, the memory 396, or the network transceiver 390 of the network entity 306. For example, the network entity 306 may send the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE using the network transceiver(s) 390. In some aspects, the information indicating the angle-based estimation capability of the UE indicates at least one of support or non-support of the gNB-side angle estimation or support or non-support of the UE-side angle estimation. In some aspects, transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE includes: at least one of an indication with or without UE-side angle estimation or an indication with or without gNB-side angle estimation is sent to the UE.

Process 600 may include additional implementations, such as any single implementation or any combination of implementations described below and/or in connection with one or more other processes described elsewhere herein. While fig. 6 shows exemplary blocks of process 600, in some implementations, process 600 may include additional blocks, fewer blocks, different blocks, or blocks arranged in a different manner than those depicted in fig. 6. Additionally or alternatively, two or more of the blocks of process 600 may be performed in parallel.

As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of the methods 500 and 600 is that when a UE reports its angle-based estimation capability to a location server, for example, the network is aware that there is potentially additional positioning information available from the UE, which may result in improved positioning accuracy. UE-side positioning can supplement the gNB-side positioning in many ways. Multiple measurements may result in better estimation accuracy-for example, simply averaging the measurements as a baseline example may reduce noise, and the diversity of the measurements from multiple UEs enables detection of differences or inconsistencies from the gNB side measurements that may occur due to multipath reflections and specific propagation modes such as diffraction. Such inaccuracy and inconsistency are common in urban/urban-type channel environments. Thus, additional gains may be brought about based on UE-side positioning, which may be turned on or off dynamically as capability, albeit at the cost of UE-side positioning.

In the detailed description above, it can be seen that the different features are grouped together in various examples. This manner of disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the example clauses have more features than are explicitly mentioned in each clause. Rather, aspects of the present disclosure may include less than all of the features of the disclosed individual example clauses. Accordingly, the following clauses are hereby considered to be included in the specification, wherein each clause may be individually as separate examples. Although each subordinate clause may refer to a particular combination with one of the other clauses in the clauses, aspects of the subordinate clause are not limited to the particular combination. It should be understood that other example clauses may also include combinations of subordinate clause aspects with the subject matter of any other subordinate clause or independent clause, or combinations of any feature with other subordinate and independent clauses. Various aspects disclosed herein expressly include such combinations unless specifically expressed or inferred that no particular combination (e.g., contradictory aspects, such as defining elements as insulators and conductors) is contemplated. Furthermore, it is also contemplated that aspects of the clause may be included in any other independent clause, even if the clause is not directly dependent on the independent clause.

Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

Clause 1. A method of wireless positioning performed by a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising: determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises: determining that the gNB side angle estimation is supported and the UE side angle estimation is not supported; determining that the gNB side angle estimation is not supported and that the UE side angle estimation is supported; determining to support both the gNB side angle estimation and the UE side angle estimation; or determining that both the gNB side angle estimation and the UE side angle estimation are not supported.

Clause 3 the method of any of clauses 1-2, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on at least one of: the size of the antenna array of the UE; the number of antenna elements currently being used in the antenna array of the UE; the beamwidth of the beam being measured; a frequency range over which the UE is operating; a maximum Operating Bandwidth (OBW) of a frequency range over which the UE is operating; or the number of possible Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) samples.

Clause 4. The method of clause 3, wherein determining the UE's angle-based estimation capability comprises determining supporting UE-side angle estimation based on at least one of: determining that a size of an antenna array of the UE is above a size threshold; determining that a number of antenna elements currently being used in the antenna array of the UE is above an antenna utilization threshold; determining that the beamwidth of the beam being measured is below a beamwidth threshold; determining that the frequency range over which the UE is operating is above a frequency threshold; determining that the maximum OBW is above an OBW threshold; or determining that the number of possible PRS samples is above a PRS sample number threshold.

Clause 5 the method of any of clauses 3 to 4, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises determining that UE-side angle estimation is not supported based on at least one of: determining that a size of the antenna array of the UE is not above a size threshold; determining that a number of antenna elements currently being used in the antenna array of the UE is not above an antenna utilization threshold; determining that the beamwidth of the beam being measured is not below a beamwidth threshold; determining that the frequency range over which the UE is operating is not above a frequency threshold; determining that the maximum OBW is not above an OBW threshold; or determining that the number of possible PRS samples is not above a PRS sample number threshold.

Clause 6 the method of any of clauses 1 to 5, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises: the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined based on mobility settings for which positioning assistance is requested by an application on the UE.

Clause 7 the method of clause 6, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability based on the mobility setting for which positioning assistance is requested by an application on the UE comprises: a support UE-side angle estimation is determined based on determining that the movement speed of the UE is below a speed threshold.

Clause 8 the method of any of clauses 1 to 7, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises: the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined based on an environment in which the UE is operating.

Clause 9 the method of clause 8, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on the environment in which the UE is operating comprises determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on at least one of: the number of neighboring devices; the density of adjacent devices; network utilization; number of noise sources; the number of signal reflectors; or the number of signal blockers.

Clause 10 the method of any of clauses 1 to 9, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises: different angle-based estimation capabilities are determined for different frequency bands, frequency ranges, component carriers, frequency band combinations, positioning frequency layers, or combinations thereof supported by the UE.

Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 1 to 10, wherein reporting the UE's angle-based estimation capability to a network entity comprises: reporting the angle-based estimation capability to a base station, a location server, or both.

Clause 12 the method of any of clauses 1 to 11, wherein reporting the UE's angle-based estimation capability to a network entity comprises: the angle-based estimation capability is reported according to a reporting configuration.

Clause 13 the method of clause 12, wherein the reporting configuration is provided to the UE by a base station or a location server.

The method of any one of clauses 1 to 13, further comprising: receiving an angle-based estimation configuration from the network entity; and performing an angle-based estimation according to the angle-based estimation configuration.

Clause 15. A method of wireless positioning performed by a network entity, the method comprising: receiving, from a User Equipment (UE), information indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; determining an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE.

Clause 16 the method of clause 15, wherein the information indicative of the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is indicative of at least one of: support or not support gNB side angle estimation; or with or without supporting UE-side angle estimation.

The method of any one of clauses 15 to 16, wherein transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE comprises transmitting to the UE at least one of: an indication of UE side angle estimation with or without; or with or without an indication of the gNB side angle estimation.

Clause 18, a User Equipment (UE), the User Equipment (UE) comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

Clause 19, the UE of clause 18, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: determining that the gNB side angle estimation is supported and the UE side angle estimation is not supported; determining that gNB side angle estimation is not supported and UE side angle estimation is supported; determining to support both the gNB side angle estimation and the UE side angle estimation; or determining that both the gNB side angle estimation and the UE side angle estimation are not supported.

The UE of any of clauses 18-19, wherein to determine the UE's angle-based estimation capability, the at least one processor is configured to determine the UE's angle-based estimation capability based on at least one of: the size of the antenna array of the UE; the number of antenna elements currently being used in the antenna array of the UE; the beamwidth of the beam being measured; a frequency range over which the UE is operating; a maximum Operating Bandwidth (OBW) of a frequency range over which the UE is operating; or the number of possible Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) samples.

Clause 21. The UE of clause 20, wherein to determine the UE's angle-based estimation capability, the at least one processor is configured to determine supporting UE-side angle estimation based on at least one of: determining that a size of the antenna array of the UE is above a size threshold; determining that a number of antenna elements currently being used in the antenna array of the UE is above an antenna utilization threshold; determining that the beamwidth of the beam being measured is below a beamwidth threshold; determining that the frequency range over which the UE is operating is above a frequency threshold; determining that the maximum OBW is above an OBW threshold; or determining that the number of possible PRS samples is above a PRS sample number threshold.

Clause 22. The UE of any of clauses 20 to 21, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to determine that UE-side angle estimation is not supported based on at least one of: determining that a size of the antenna array of the UE is not above a size threshold; determining that a number of antenna elements currently being used in the antenna array of the UE is not above an antenna utilization threshold; determining that the beamwidth of the beam being measured is not below a beamwidth threshold; determining that the frequency range over which the UE is operating is not above a frequency threshold; determining that the maximum OBW is not above an OBW threshold; or determining that the number of possible PRS samples is not above a PRS sample number threshold.

Clause 23, the UE of any of clauses 18 to 22, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined based on mobility settings for which positioning assistance is requested by an application on the UE.

Clause 24, the UE of clause 23, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability based on the mobility setting for which positioning assistance is requested by an application on the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: a support UE-side angle estimation is determined based on determining that the movement speed of the UE is below a speed threshold.

Clause 25, the UE of any of clauses 18 to 24, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined based on an environment in which the UE is operating.

Clause 26, the UE of clause 25, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on the environment in which the UE is operating, the at least one processor is configured to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on at least one of: the number of neighboring devices; the density of adjacent devices; network utilization; number of noise sources; the number of signal reflectors; or the number of signal blockers.

Clause 27, the UE of any of clauses 18 to 26, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: different angle-based estimation capabilities are determined for different frequency bands, frequency ranges, component carriers, frequency band combinations, positioning frequency layers, or combinations thereof supported by the UE.

The UE of any of clauses 18 to 27, wherein to report the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity, the at least one processor is configured to: reporting the angle-based estimation capability to a base station, a location server, or both.

Clause 29, the UE of any of clauses 18 to 28, wherein to report the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity, the at least one processor is configured to: the angle-based estimation capability is reported according to a reporting configuration.

Clause 30 the UE of clause 29, wherein the reporting configuration is provided to the UE by a base station or a location server.

The UE of any of clauses 18-30, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receiving, via the at least one transceiver, an angle-based estimation configuration from the network entity; and performing an angle-based estimation according to the angle-based estimation configuration.

Clause 32. A network entity, the network entity comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receiving, via the at least one transceiver, information from a User Equipment (UE) indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; determining an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE via the at least one transceiver.

Clause 33. The network entity of clause 32, wherein the information indicating the angle-based estimation capability of the UE indicates at least one of: support or not support gNB side angle estimation; or with or without supporting UE-side angle estimation.

Clause 34, the network entity of any of clauses 32 to 33, wherein to send the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE, the at least one processor is configured to send at least one of: an indication of UE side angle estimation with or without; or with or without an indication of the gNB side angle estimation.

Clause 35, a User Equipment (UE), the User Equipment (UE) comprising: means for determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and means for reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

Clause 36 a network entity, the network entity comprising: means for receiving, from a User Equipment (UE), information indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; means for determining an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and means for transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE.

Clause 37, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a User Equipment (UE), cause the UE to: determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

Clause 38 is a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by a network entity, cause the network entity to: receiving, from a User Equipment (UE), information indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; determining an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and transmitting the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE.

Clause 35, an apparatus, comprising: a memory; a transceiver; and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver, the memory, the transceiver, and the processor configured to perform the method according to any of clauses 1-17.

Clause 36 an apparatus comprising means for performing the method according to any of clauses 1 to 17.

Clause 37 a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions comprising at least one instruction for causing a computer or processor to perform the method according to any of clauses 1 to 17.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

Furthermore, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an ASIC, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The methods, sequences, and/or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in Random Access Memory (RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An example storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

In one or more example aspects, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes: compact Discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital Versatile Discs (DVDs), floppy disks, and blu-ray discs where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of the disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications could be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, the functions, steps, and/or actions of the method claims in accordance with the aspects of the disclosure described herein need not be performed in any particular order. Furthermore, although elements of the disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated.

Claims

1. A method of wireless positioning performed by a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising:

Determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and

Reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises:

determining that the gNB side angle estimation is supported and the UE side angle estimation is not supported;

determining that the gNB side angle estimation is not supported and that the UE side angle estimation is supported;

determining to support both the gNB side angle estimation and the UE side angle estimation; or alternatively

It is determined that both the gNB side angle estimation and the UE side angle estimation are not supported.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on at least one of:

The size of the antenna array of the UE;

the number of antenna elements currently being used in the antenna array of the UE;

the beamwidth of the beam being measured;

a frequency range over which the UE is operating;

A maximum Operating Bandwidth (OBW) of a frequency range over which the UE is operating; or alternatively

The number of possible Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) samples.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises determining to support UE-side angle estimation based on at least one of:

determining that a size of the antenna array of the UE is above a size threshold;

Determining that a number of antenna elements currently being used in the antenna array of the UE is above an antenna utilization threshold;

determining that the beamwidth of the beam being measured is below a beamwidth threshold;

Determining that the frequency range over which the UE is operating is above a frequency threshold;

Determining that the maximum OBW is above an OBW threshold; or alternatively

It is determined that the number of possible PRS samples is above a PRS sample number threshold.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises determining that UE-side angle estimation is not supported based on at least one of:

Determining that a size of the antenna array of the UE is not above a size threshold;

Determining that the number of antenna elements currently in use in the antenna array of the UE is not above an antenna utilization threshold;

Determining that the beamwidth of the beam being measured is not below a beamwidth threshold;

determining that the frequency range over which the UE is operating is not above a frequency threshold;

Determining that the maximum OBW is not above an OBW threshold; or alternatively

It is determined that the number of possible PRS samples is not above a PRS sample number threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises: the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined based on mobility settings for which positioning assistance is requested by an application on the UE.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability based on the mobility setting for which an application on the UE requests positioning assistance comprises: a support UE-side angle estimation is determined based on determining that the movement speed of the UE is below a speed threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises: the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined based on an environment in which the UE is operating.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on the environment in which the UE is operating comprises determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on at least one of:

The number of neighboring devices;

the density of adjacent devices;

Network utilization;

Number of noise sources;

the number of signal reflectors; or alternatively

Number of signal blockers.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the angle-based estimation capability of the UE comprises: different angle-based estimation capabilities are determined for different frequency bands, frequency ranges, component carriers, frequency band combinations, positioning frequency layers, or combinations thereof supported by the UE.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity comprises: reporting the angle-based estimation capability to a base station, a location server, or both.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity comprises: the angle-based estimation capability is reported according to a reporting configuration.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the reporting configuration is provided to the UE by a base station or a location server.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

Receiving an angle-based estimation configuration from the network entity; and

An angle-based estimation is performed according to the angle-based estimation configuration.

15. A method of wireless location performed by a network entity, the method comprising:

receiving, from a User Equipment (UE), information indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE;

Determining an angle-based estimation configuration based on the angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and

And sending the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein information indicative of the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is indicative of at least one of:

Support or not support gNB side angle estimation; or alternatively

UE-side angle estimation is supported or not supported.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein sending the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE comprises sending at least one of:

an indication of UE side angle estimation with or without; or alternatively

With or without an indication of the gNB side angle estimation.

18. A User Equipment (UE), the UE comprising:

A memory;

At least one transceiver; and

At least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to:

Determining an angle-based estimation capability of the UE; and

Reporting the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity.

19. The UE of claim 18, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to:

20. The UE of claim 18, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on at least one of:

The size of the antenna array of the UE;

the beamwidth of the beam being measured;

a frequency range over which the UE is operating;

A maximum Operating Bandwidth (OBW) of a frequency range over which the UE is operating;

The number of possible Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) samples; or alternatively

An application on the UE requests mobility settings for which positioning assistance is aimed.

21. The UE of claim 20, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to determine supporting UE-side angle estimation based on at least one of:

determining that the maximum OBW is above an OBW threshold;

determining that the number of possible PRS samples is above a PRS sample number threshold; or alternatively

And determining that the moving speed of the UE is lower than a speed threshold.

22. The UE of claim 18, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is determined based on an environment in which the UE is operating.

23. The UE of claim 22, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on the environment in which the UE is operating, the at least one processor is configured to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE based on at least one of:

The number of neighboring devices;

the density of adjacent devices;

Network utilization;

Number of noise sources;

the number of signal reflectors; or alternatively

Number of signal blockers.

24. The UE of claim 18, wherein to determine the angle-based estimation capability of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: different angle-based estimation capabilities are determined for different frequency bands, frequency ranges, component carriers, frequency band combinations, positioning frequency layers, or combinations thereof supported by the UE.

25. The UE of claim 18, wherein to report the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity, the at least one processor is configured to: reporting the angle-based estimation capability to a base station, a location server, or both.

26. The UE of claim 18, wherein to report the angle-based estimation capability of the UE to a network entity, the at least one processor is configured to: the angle-based estimation capability is reported according to a reporting configuration.

27. The UE of claim 18, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

Receiving, via the at least one transceiver, an angle-based estimation configuration from the network entity; and

28. A network entity, the network entity comprising:

A memory;

At least one transceiver; and

receiving, via the at least one transceiver, information from a User Equipment (UE) indicating an angle-based estimation capability of the UE;

The angle-based estimation configuration is sent to the UE via the at least one transceiver.

29. The network entity of claim 28, wherein information indicative of the angle-based estimation capability of the UE is indicative of at least one of:

Support or not support gNB side angle estimation; or alternatively

UE-side angle estimation is supported or not supported.

30. The network entity of claim 28, wherein to send the angle-based estimation configuration to the UE, the at least one processor is configured to send at least one of:

an indication of UE side angle estimation with or without; or alternatively

With or without an indication of the gNB side angle estimation.